Why is Crafting still in the game?

[DarkStar]

The ability to meld any equipment in the game should be added to FFXIV. But the restrictions you propose would just kill one of the best things about FFXIV: the ability to level everything. Forcing you to "dedicate" yourself to one or a few crafting classes would suck for people that enjoy playing with them all.

That's not really what I meant by 'dedicating' to a particular crafting class, and I appologize if that's what you thought I meant.

What I meant was that you could still actively level and use every single crafting profession, but you could only access and benefit from the special materia from one or two DoH classes at a time. Admittedly, depending on how SE would do this idea, it might not even be necessary to go for the 'dedication' idea, because the idea already limits itself somewhat. Mainly, I was just thinking limiting it that way would mean players would have to pay a nominal fee (possibly in gil, if SE ever improves gil drop rates) for the dedication, you could cancel at any time, and its entire purpose is to make players think carefully about how they want to build their class.

Edit: In hindsight, it really isn't necessary to go with the "Dedication" idea. All that's necessary is that these special Materia be very high-level recipes (1 or 2 stars) requiring high-level materia as the ingredients. Thus, the economy is stimulated on multiple levels, and by making these special materia untradeable but capable of being melded to other people's gear, players who dislike crafting aren't forced to take it up just to keep their gear as powerful as possible. They could always just buy the necessary materia on the MB, trade it to their crafter friend, and then Meld Request to get the desired materia.